MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/. Moscow took heed of Washington’s signals regarding possible countermeasures over the alleged DNC hacking incidents, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the meeting with participants in the Young Diplomats Forum at the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund.

"We did heed the signal sent to Moscow from top US political and administrative echelons that countermeasures could be taken once the relevant agencies have investigated the circumstances surrounding the alleged cyber-attacks," he said.

The diplomat added that Moscow took note of statements made by lower level US authorities on such steps implying, in some cases, extraterritorial sanctions, which are illegal from Russia’s point of view.

"All this is on the US’ instinct level, an automatic impulse to utter the word ‘sanctions’, and this is sad," he said.